Wilder (The Wild Ones 3)

“Vick only loses his cool this bad and gets really cranky during the winter,” Hale explains from the other side of Piper.

“They aren’t even sitting in their own sections!” Chester shouts, growing enraged.

I roll my eyes and resume whittling the chunk of wood, trying to mold it into a deer for Piper.

She kisses my shoulder like she’s worried I’m going to get mad at Chester while holding a knife.

She doesn’t know I’m usually holding something bigger and sharper at these things. I can’t stand idle hands.

I get in too much trouble when I have idle hands.

“Why does it smell like rotten fish in here?” she whispers.

I snort, surprised and caught off guard by the question, and Nila turns around to look back at us, gesturing at me.

“My brother is an asshole. Congratulations. You bagged yourself a real winner.”

Just as she turns around, a guy I barely remember faces her, having just come back to Tomahawk for the first time since he was a kid.

“Hey, you’re Nila, right?” he asks her with a smile too wide for his face.

My eyebrows bounce up in surprise at the brazen audacity to speak to my sister with a smile like that right in front of me.

Killian cracks his knuckles, but…Nila squeaks out a sound.

She follows up that sound with, “Hibbida. Hibbida. Hargara.”

Piper’s eyes go wide in confusion, as the guy’s smile slips quickly. He stares at her like he’s waiting on her to make sense.

I smile to myself, glancing back down. Nila has issues talking to guys she finds attractive. Killian hates the fact she can talk to him. I don’t have to worry about my sister ending up in anyone’s bed. And my girl is on my arm instead of across the country.

Life is good.

Nila stands, ducks her head, and then darts out of the aisle, racing toward the back door when the guy continues staring.

Killian still has that murderous look in his eyes, but I’m all smiles now.

The guy turns around just as Vick bangs his gavel on the podium. “Let’s move on before I get a migraine. Someone will get locked up if I get a migraine, and it’ll be the first person who pisses me off.”

He glares at Chester like he’s daring him to argue. Chester curses as he drops back down to his seat.

“Anything else to bring forth?”

Ma stands, and I stop whittling, curious what she’s going to say. She never speaks much at these things.

None of the Wilders do.

“I need to call dibs on the town square on the fifth of next month,” she tells him.

Why the hell does she need the entire town square?

“Why could you possibly need the entire town square?” Vick asks her.

I hate that I just had the same thought as Vick.

I need a shower now.

“For my boy’s wedding, of course,” Ma tells him.

The knife tumbles out of my hand, stabbing into the wooden floor beneath me.

“I don’t want everyone on our land, so it’d be easier just to do it in the square,” Ma adds.

Piper looks over at my two brothers like she’s confused.

“Which one is getting married?” she asks me.

“For a wedding, something can be arranged,” Vick says with a shrug.

I don’t answer Piper, even as she tugs at my sleeve.

“Damn it, we need to also discuss these Wild Ones going after all these unsuspecting men and women who don’t know no better. They think it’s all fun and games, never seeing what hell awaits them!” Chester says, picking a new fight since he lost the last one.

“Can it, Chester,” George Malone barks.

Chester glares at him. George glares back.

They’ll end up in lock-up before the meeting ends.

“Kai, you have to follow the fucking law and do all the premarital things required for it to be a legal marriage,” Vick tells me like I’m some sort of idiot…or rebel.

I wouldn’t say I’m either, honestly.

I just don’t like all the rules that I break. I follow them when I like them or have no choice, damn it.

Piper goes stiff beside me.

“What?” she blurts out.

Vick gestures at her. “You too, Piper. Also, you’ll need to start using a flag at other Wild One residences when you go to visit, no matter what Kai tries to tell you,” Vick tells her.

I shake my head.

“Don’t do it. It’s too controlling,” I argue, glancing down at her.

Her eyes are really wide. Clearly the wedding is taking her by surprise. But for once, I see no reason to argue with Ma.

Two months is enough time to decide to marry her. Technically three months, if you count the first five weeks when I was accidentally falling in love with a girl who I’d have never imagined belonging in Tomahawk.

“That’s cheating!” Penny crows.

“You had your niece hogtied and kidnapped to attend her wedding, and then you dragged her down the aisle. How is that not cheating?” Greta fires back at her.